In an upper to middle income household a domestic help and her services are indispensable. Yet, she is not given the diginity, living wages and other benefits one gets in the organised sector. Pushpa Achanta talks to the activists working for the domestic workers' rights to find what it will take to recognise these rights in our society.

As the Prime Minister launches his vision for cities in the country, it is pertinent to ask what his record has been in the largest city of the state where he was Chief Minister before becoming PM. A recent study finds many pluses, and some minuses. Darryl D'Monte reports.

Homeless, vulnerable in equal measure to the vagaries of nature and human whims, and deprived of any form of social security, street dwellers often provide critical services, helping to sustain themselves and also the city. Pushpa Achanta meets some of them in Bengaluru and finds out more about their existence.

The ruling government has allocated 7,060 crores of rupees for smart cities, but do our realities allow for westernised ICT-driven smart cities? Darryl D’Monte dwells on what would really make our cities smart, based on deliberations at the second Urban Age conference.

Several recent studies bring out the abysmal deprivation from entitlements among India’s vast internal migrant population. Shambhu Ghatak throws light on the problems faced by migrants and explores if the UID can indeed live up to its promise of making mobility a smoother process.

Generalised policies that draw up uniform plans for cities also end up marginalising millions among the urban poor.
Shirish Khare
emphasises the
need for more inclusive and participatory development if India is to meet the huge urbanisation challenge that lies ahead.

The common thread between our external and internal security predicaments is our approach to time. Most security issues are long-standing
and seemingly interminable. If we understood why this is so, we can change it, writes
Firdaus Ahmed.

The senior citizens of Chingrajpara slum in Bilaspur are unable to benefit from the largesse of the many government departments in New Delhi. In this fifth article in our
SLUM DIARIES series, Ashima Sood notes that they go begging in the alleys of the slum, depending instead on their more reliable humble neighbours.